September 4, 2026 • 25 mins
Truth can be right in front of us and still get pushed down. We walk through Romans 1:18-23 where Scripture says God has made Himself known, through creation and through the conscience, yet people suppress that truth because honoring God also means answering to Him. That’s why Paul’s words feel so current: when we stop glorifying God and giving thanks, our thinking doesn’t stay neutral, it starts to bend.
Dr. Timothy Mann traces the progression from rejecting revelation to rationalizing sin, then to what the Bible calls foolishness that masquerades as wisdom. We talk about how a mind cut off from God’s Word loses clarity about truth, right and wrong, and what really matters. We also address the way cultural theories and “expert” speculation can intimidate the church into reshaping doctrine, whether that’s theistic evolution, progressive creationism, or modern views of the mind and soul that compete with Scripture’s authority.
Then the passage lands where it always lands: worship. People are naturally religious, and when we refuse the Creator, we don’t become non-worshipers, we become creative idol-makers. From striking examples of man-made religion to the subtle modern idols of comfort, money, power, and self, the warning is simple and sharp: exchanging God’s glory always costs more than we think. Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend, and leave a review that tells us what challenged you most.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the
(00:02):
biblical teaching ministry ofDr.
Timothy Mann.
Our mission is to help you buildyour life on the unshakable
foundation of God's Word.
Rooted in Scripture, anchored inthe grace of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Each week, Dr.
Mann opens the Bible to bringclarity, conviction, and
encouragement for everyday life.
Today on Foundations of Truth,we continue our series From
(00:25):
Guilty to Glory from the Book ofRomans, chapter 1, verses 18
through 23.
Now, here with today's messageis Dr.
Timothy Mann.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Foolish thinking and false worship.
Foolish thinking and falseworship.
The Bible says, For the wrath ofGod is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness andunrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth andunrighteousness.
(00:57):
Because what may be known of Godis manifest in them.
For God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of theworld, his invisible attributes
are clearly seen, beingunderstood by the things that
are made, even his eternal powerand Godhead, so that they are
(01:23):
without excuse.
Because although they knew God,they did not glorify him as God,
nor were thankful, but becamefutile in their thoughts, and
their foolish hearts weredarkened.
And now focus on verse 22 and23.
Professing to be wise, theybecame fools, and changed the
(01:48):
glory of the incorruptible Godinto an image made like
corruptible man, and birds, andfour-footed animals, and
creeping things.
Let's stop there.
This is God's word this morning.
In Romans chapter 1, verse 18through 23, what's happening
here is the Holy Spirit of God,through the Apostle Paul, is
(02:12):
describing for us the characterof fallen man.
We discovered that he reallygives four reasons here.
The Holy Spirit of God revealsfour reasons why everyone, every
single person who's ever beenborn, except Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of God, why everyone isborn under God's wrath and
condemnation.
(02:32):
We see these reasons here.
The first two reasons wediscussed some last week.
The very first reason is God'srevelation, the fact that he has
revealed himself to all people.
He has not left himself withouta witness.
The Bible says very clearly thatwhat may be known of God is with
is evident within you.
(02:52):
It has been manifest within you.
Because God has made it evidentto you.
You have an internal reality, aninnate sense that surely there
is something beyond me.
There is something beyond thisworld in which we live.
There is a guidance systemwithin you of morality, the
moral law of God.
(03:13):
There is an internal systemwithin you, the moral law of God
that you know automatically.
There is a moral law becausethere's a moral lawgiver who has
placed it upon your conscience.
Creation itself, the Bible says,for since the creation of the
world, his invisible attributesare clearly seen.
You woke up this morning to thebeauty of this world in which we
(03:35):
live, even with all of itsproblems and all of its
difficulties, all you have to dois look around and look at
yourself, and you see theintricacies, you see the amazing
reality, and you have to come tothe conclusion.
You must come to the conclusionbecause of the design of you, a
human, the design of thisuniverse in which we live, there
(03:56):
must be indeed a designer.
Every building has a builder,has an architect, every painting
has a painter, every design hasa designer.
God has revealed himself.
But the sad reality is that eventhough God has revealed himself,
fallen man rejects thatrevelation.
(04:17):
Because although they knew God,the Bible says, they did not
glorify him as God, nor werethey thankful.
And so in verse 22, we began tosee man's foolish thinking.
We began to see man'srationalization.
In rejecting God's clearrevelation of himself through
(04:37):
creation, people have failed tohonor and glorify God.
People have failed to give himthanks, and they became futile
in their philosophicalspeculations, and they became
foolish and darkened in theirhearts.
And trying to justifythemselves, because that's what
we do.
I mean, let's be honest, if weadmit that there is a God in
(04:58):
heaven, that there is anAlmighty God who possibly would
give a moral law into thisuniverse in which He is created,
if that is indeed the case, thenthat means I'm accountable.
And that's the last thing wewant.
We don't want to be accountable.
And so, trying to justifyourselves, we rationalize our
sin, just as fallen man stilldoes today, and professing to be
(05:22):
wise about God, professing to bewise about the universe,
professing to be wise aboutourselves, we still became
greater fools.
Centuries earlier in God's Word,in Psalm 14, verse 1, and in
Psalm 15, or excuse me, 53,verse 1, King David declared
(05:42):
that people who deny God and histruth are fools.
And it is this very foolishnessthat deludes them into thinking
that they are wise.
The spiritually unregenerate,natural person cannot think
perfectly about anything.
(06:04):
But a person's thinking isperverted most sincerely in the
spiritual and the divine realm,because that is where our sinful
rebellion is centered.
I mean, these things, thespiritual realm and the divine
realm, these things are alsobeyond our human perception.
And since we reject revelation,since fallen man rejects
(06:27):
revelation, he has no hope ofcoming to truth in himself.
And his foolish speculationstherefore go further astray,
they go furtherest astray, even,when he philosophizes about his
origin, when he philosophizesabout his purpose and his
destiny and the origin and themeaning of the universe in which
(06:50):
he or she lives.
The mind that is devoid of God'struth has no way to discriminate
between truth and falsehood.
The mind devoid of God's truthhas no way to discriminate
between right and wrong.
No way to discriminate betweenthe significant and the trivial.
No way to discriminate betweenthe truly beautiful and the
(07:10):
monstrous.
No way to discriminate betweenthe transient and the eternal.
Infect the church.
(07:31):
Because, for example, gifted andarticulate unbelievers have so
long and so loudly toutedevolution as scientific fact
rather than philosophical theorythat many Christians have been
intimidated into accommodatingtheir theology accordingly.
(07:53):
In the name of theisticevolution or progressive
creationism, they not onlycompromise scientific integrity,
but they also, and I must say,infinitely more disastrously,
compromise God's revelation.
If you're of the mindset thatthe first 11 chapters of the
(08:13):
book of Genesis are not history,then you don't even have any
ground to stand on as it relatesto the gospel.
If that's not true, how do weknow the gospel's true?
They accept the unfoundedfoolishness of spiritually
unregenerate men above theflawless truth of God's word.
(08:37):
And even in a similar approach,many Christians try to adapt
God's revelation to men'sspeculations in the areas of the
mind and the soul.
And unfortunately, intimidatedby the ever-changing and
truthfully mutually conflictingtheories of sociology and
anthropology and evenpsychology, many of us foolishly
(09:00):
modify and even exchange thetruths of God's revelation about
man in favor of man's absurdconjectures about himself.
If you hang around me any lengthof time at all, you will know
that I think Sigmund Freud was anut.
He was a kook.
(09:23):
The late Dr.
Martin Lloyd Jones perceptivelywrote, the whole drift toward
modernism that has blighted theChurch of God and nearly
destroyed its living gospel maybe traced to an hour when man
began to turn from revelation tophilosophy.
And thinking they are wise, theyhave become fools because their
(09:44):
own speculations can't replacethe revelation they reject.
It's amazing to me.
It's very sad, too, thatinstitution after institution,
in this great country,institution after institution
that once firmly stood on God'sword have progressively
accommodated itself to theintellectual foolishness of the
(10:06):
world system.
In the name of man's wisdom,they come to reflect the
foolishness and inevitably thegodlessness of the world system
of Satan.
And because he knew the ApostlePaul, as he's writing in 1
Corinthians 1, verse 18 and 20,and chapter 25, verse 2, and
(10:29):
chapter 2, verse 2 as well,because he knew that the Bible
says that the preaching of thecross is to them that are
perishing foolishness.
If you're in here this morningand you say the preaching of the
cross, the gospel, that's just afairy tale.
That's foolishness.
(10:50):
I don't even believe ahistorical Jesus lived, and if
he did live, he's a madman.
The Bible says that thepreaching of the cross to those
who are perishing isfoolishness.
I don't expect you to get it.
Unless God opens your mind.
Unless the Holy Spirit of Godbegins to deal with you and
(11:11):
convict you of your sin and yoursituation.
It's natural for you to out ofhand reject the gospel.
As the guide co-commercial says,it's what you do.
It's just what you do.
But the Bible also says that Godhas made foolish the wisdom of
the world.
And he says that the foolishnessof God is wiser than men.
(11:35):
And because of those truths, theapostle Paul declares that he
determined to know nothing amongthose to whom he preached except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Because it's the gospel that'sthe power of God unto salvation.
I can show you all the facts, Ican show you all the evidence.
You know what?
Most of the time I've I'vedetermined that really people
(11:55):
who reject God's word, rejectthe gospel, reject the truth of
salvation, they do not do sohonestly because of intellectual
objections.
Because most of the time I'llask folks, well, have you read
the Bible all the way through?
No.
And they have all thesepredisposed opinions about the
Bible.
Let's say, well, there'scontradictions in the Bible.
(12:16):
I want to hand my Bible to themand say, okay, show me one.
They don't, they can't.
Because they don't even know it.
They've not read it.
They've not taken the time todetermine its accuracy, its
historic reliability, how itstacks up.
They just out of hand completelyreject God's word, and it's not
on an intellectual basis, it'son emotional and volitional
(12:40):
basis.
They don't want to know God'sword.
They reject the truth of God'sword.
Because ultimately they hate theidea of a holy God who will hold
them accountable for theirrejection of Him.
And your only hope's the gospel.
Your only hope is the fact thatGod loves sinners.
(13:01):
Even though you reject Him, eventhough you know Him and do not
hold Him as God and do notglorify His name and are not
thankful to Him, He yet extendsHis offer to you in great love.
And He says in the book ofRevelation, whoever is thirsty,
let him come and drink of thewater of life freely.
Jesus said, All of you who areweary and heavy laden, come to
(13:21):
me.
Jesus said, If any man comes tome, I will in no wise cast him
out or turn him away.
This isn't in my notes.
If you were here in the firstservice, you know that.
It could very well be that theSpirit of God is very much at
work in someone's heart and mindthis morning.
(13:44):
I don't know.
It could be that you've come inhere set against the things of
God, and maybe you're herebecause somebody asked you to be
here.
You really didn't want to behere, but you're just being
polite.
SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
You're listening to Foundations of Truth, the
biblical teaching ministry ofDr.
Timothy Mann.
Thank you so much for yourprayers and your continued
financial support to help keepspreading biblical truth around
the world through our podcasts,our radio programs, and other
biblical resources.
You can give a financial gift atfoundationsoftruth.net.
Foundationsoftruth.net.
(14:16):
Now let's return to today'smessage from Romans chapter 1.
Here's Dr.
Timothy Mann.
SPEAKER_01 (14:21):
The greatest fool in all the world is the person who
exchanges God's wisdom of truthand light for man's wisdom of
deceit and darkness.
I want to ask you as a believer,even this morning, even as a
believer and a follower of JesusChrist, are you adopting the
world's so-called wisdom to liveyour life by?
Or are you clinging to the truthof God and his word?
(14:45):
Which is it?
The reason God's wrath is uponus is because he's revealed
himself, we've rejected him, andwe rationalize our foolish
thinking.
Profess to be wise, but yet sofoolish.
(15:06):
The Bible says in verse 23, andchange the glory of the
incorruptible God into an imagemade like corruptible man, and
birds and four-footed animalsand creeping things.
This is the fourth reason.
The fourth reason why everyperson is born under God's wrath
and condemnation is man-madereligion.
Our false worship, our falseworship, which is reflected in
(15:30):
the countless systems that wehave devised to replace the
truth and the worship of God.
Now the Bible's clear aboutthis.
The Bible is clear that althoughfallen sinners are not naturally
godly, boy, we sure are verynaturally religious.
(15:53):
We are.
We're naturally naturallyreligious.
We want to worship something, wewant to serve something.
As the great theologian BobDylan once said, everybody's
going to serve somebody.
It's the truth.
Approximately, I was doing myresearch on this sermon this
week and I've uh looked up somestats.
(16:15):
Approximately 5.8 billion peoplein the world have an
identifiable religiousaffiliation of some sort.
And many more are said to havesome form of unidentified
religion.
It's amazing.
Hindus have some 330 milliongods, which amounts to about
eight gods per family based ontheir population today.
(16:39):
They also revere cows.
I revere cows too, but in adifferent way.
They revere cows and countlessother animals that they consider
to be sacred.
It's amazing in my research.
I have to share this with you.
I'm not going to share as muchof facts as I did in the early
(17:00):
service, but uh as in mydiscovery this week, in my
research, I found out that thereis a two-inch-long discolored
tooth claimed to belong toBuddha and to have been
retrieved from his burial place.
That tooth is venerated,worshipped by millions of
Buddhists.
(17:20):
A tooth.
And that tooth, listen, checkthis out.
Can you believe this?
The tooth is set in a goldenlotus bloom surrounded with
rubies and enshrined in thelisten, wait for it.
Enshrin in the temple of thetooth.
(17:42):
I couldn't make this stuff up ifI tried.
In the temple of the tooth inSri Lanka.
A tooth.
Interestingly enough, though,the beliefs and the practices of
ritualistic Christianity differlittle from such pagan
(18:07):
superstitions.
Many humanistic sociologists andphilosophers and theologians
maintain that religion is a markof man's upward climb from
primitive chaos and ignorance,ascending through animism to
polydemonism to polytheism, andfinally to monotheism.
But the clear testimony ofScripture is that human religion
(18:32):
of any sort and of every sort,whether it's simple or whether
it's highly sophisticated, isactually a downward movement
away from God, a downwardmovement away from truth, and a
downward movement away fromrighteousness.
Contrary to much thinking, men'sreligions do not reflect their
highest endeavors, but insteadtheir lowest depravity.
(18:56):
That truth is attested even bysecular history.
Let me share a few thoughts withyou about that reality.
Herodotus, the famous Greekhistorian of the 5th century BC,
said that the earliest paganshad no pagan temples or idols.
The first century Roman scholarVero reported that the Romans
(19:16):
had no animal or human images ofa god for 170 years after the
founding of Rome.
Lucian, the second century A.D.
Greek writer, made similarstatements concerning early
Greece and even Egypt.
The fourth century Christianhistorian Eusbyus declared that
the quote, oldest peoples had noidols.
(19:38):
It's amazing all of the historythat we can see that as time has
gone on, it's devolved actuallymore and more and more into the
point where in spiritualblindness and intellectual
darkness and moral depravity,men are by nature inclined to
(19:58):
reject the holy creator for theunholy creature.
Because something even in ourfallenness demands a God, but
one they like better than thetrue God, they devise deities of
their own making.
(20:23):
You shall not make for yourselfan idol or any likeness of what
is in heaven above or on theearth beneath or in the water
above.
You shall not worship them orserve them.
Yet the irony and the sadreality of that, at the very
same time that those and othercommandments and ordinances were
being given to Moses, thechildren of Israel were down
below, making a golden calf toworship.
That's what was taking place.
(20:45):
I thought about this week, andthis may be a poor illustration,
a poor way to think about this,but in my view, man's rejection
of God and the embracing ofidols, whether it's ourself or
something else, can be comparedto a son who murdered his father
and then made a dummy figurethat he introduces to the world
as his father.
(21:05):
That's what it's like.
And yet, what sinful mankind hasalways done and continues to do
with God is actually infinitelymore wicked and senseless than
that.
Have you ever noticed that thefirst creature that man
substitutes for God is himself?
Himself.
(21:38):
Voltaire, although he doubtedlymade this alleged statement in
sarcasm, Voltaire was correctwhen he said this God made man
in his own image, and manreturned the favor.
Listen, every form of idolatryis a form of self worship.
(21:58):
Just as every Every form ofidolatry is a form of demon or
Satan worship.
Whether your idols are fashionedout of your own depraved
thinking or are inspired bySatan himself, every false God
appeals to our fallen nature andentices us to glorify and
indulge ourself.
That's what it does.
(22:20):
In one way or another, allidolatry is worship of self and
its service of Satan.
It's easy for us in so many waysto laugh at and kind of poke fun
at what it seems to be soridiculous.
Statues and idols.
A.W.
Tozer wisely observed thatidolatry begins in the mind.
(22:45):
When we pervert or exchange theidea of God for something other
than what he really is.
We think this morning it wouldbe ludicrous for us to make
images of birds and four-footedanimals and creeping things,
even though ancient cultureshave done that, and some even
not ancient, currently aroundthe world today.
Many years ago, J.
H.
(23:05):
Clinch wrote the provocative andpowerful lines, and still from
him we turn away and fill ourhearts with worthless things.
The fires of greed melt the clayand forth the idle springs.
Ambition's flame and passion'sheat, by wondrous alchemy,
transmute earth dross to raisesome gilded brute to fill
(23:29):
Jehovah's seat.
When a person rejects God'srevelation, whatever the form of
that revelation might be, whathappens is you regress through
rationalization, ultimately tofalse worship, false religion,
and ultimately to reprobation,which we're going to look at
next week.
(23:50):
Verse 24 through 32.
I challenge you, read thatbefore next week.
False worship begins when peoplereject what they know about God.
And instead of looking to Him ascreator and sustainer of life,
they see themselves as thecenter of the universe.
(24:10):
And then they soon invent godsthat are convenient projections
of your own selfish plans anddecrees.
Oh, those gods may be woodenfigures, or they may be the
things that we desire, such ascomfort.
Comfort, money, power.
(24:35):
They may even bemisrepresentations of God
Himself.
A result of making God in ourown image instead of the
reverse.
Anytime you think thoughts aboutGod that are not in line with
the truth of God's word, that isidolatry.
And that is false worship.
(24:56):
But the common denominator isthis idlers worship the things
God made rather than GodHimself.
How's your thinking?
How's your worship?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Thank you for joining us today for Foundations
of Truth, the biblical teachingministry of Dr.
Timothy Mann.
If you'd like to hear thismessage again or get more
biblical resources or give afinancial gift, you can do so
online.
Foundationsoftruth.net.
That's foundationsoftruth.net.
Foundations of Truth is madepossible in part by the generous
(25:29):
support of AMN Plumbing, proudlyserving Taytona Beach, Ormond
Beach, Port Orange, and NewSmyrna Beach communities.
Also Cat Care Clinic of OrmondBeach, providing compassionate,
feline focused veterinary careand Luther Rice Seminary,
equipping men and women throughbiblical and theological
education.
We're grateful for theirpartnership in making this
ministry possible.
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the
(00:02):
biblical teaching ministry ofDr.
Timothy Mann.
Our mission is to help you buildyour life on the unshakable
foundation of God's Word.
Rooted in Scripture, anchored inthe grace of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Each week, Dr.
Mann opens the Bible to bringclarity, conviction, and
encouragement for everyday life.
Today on Foundations of Truth,we continue our series From
(00:25):
Guilty to Glory from the Book ofRomans, chapter 1, verses 18
through 23.
Now, here with today's messageis Dr.
Timothy Mann.
SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
Foolish thinking and false worship.
Foolish thinking and falseworship.
The Bible says, For the wrath ofGod is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness andunrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth andunrighteousness.
(00:57):
Because what may be known of Godis manifest in them.
For God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of theworld, his invisible attributes
are clearly seen, beingunderstood by the things that
are made, even his eternal powerand Godhead, so that they are
(01:23):
without excuse.
Because although they knew God,they did not glorify him as God,
nor were thankful, but becamefutile in their thoughts, and
their foolish hearts weredarkened.
And now focus on verse 22 and23.
Professing to be wise, theybecame fools, and changed the
(01:48):
glory of the incorruptible Godinto an image made like
corruptible man, and birds, andfour-footed animals, and
creeping things.
Let's stop there.
This is God's word this morning.
In Romans chapter 1, verse 18through 23, what's happening
here is the Holy Spirit of God,through the Apostle Paul, is
(02:12):
describing for us the characterof fallen man.
We discovered that he reallygives four reasons here.
The Holy Spirit of God revealsfour reasons why everyone, every
single person who's ever beenborn, except Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of God, why everyone isborn under God's wrath and
condemnation.
(02:32):
We see these reasons here.
The first two reasons wediscussed some last week.
The very first reason is God'srevelation, the fact that he has
revealed himself to all people.
He has not left himself withouta witness.
The Bible says very clearly thatwhat may be known of God is with
is evident within you.
(02:52):
It has been manifest within you.
Because God has made it evidentto you.
You have an internal reality, aninnate sense that surely there
is something beyond me.
There is something beyond thisworld in which we live.
There is a guidance systemwithin you of morality, the
moral law of God.
(03:13):
There is an internal systemwithin you, the moral law of God
that you know automatically.
There is a moral law becausethere's a moral lawgiver who has
placed it upon your conscience.
Creation itself, the Bible says,for since the creation of the
world, his invisible attributesare clearly seen.
You woke up this morning to thebeauty of this world in which we
(03:35):
live, even with all of itsproblems and all of its
difficulties, all you have to dois look around and look at
yourself, and you see theintricacies, you see the amazing
reality, and you have to come tothe conclusion.
You must come to the conclusionbecause of the design of you, a
human, the design of thisuniverse in which we live, there
(03:56):
must be indeed a designer.
Every building has a builder,has an architect, every painting
has a painter, every design hasa designer.
God has revealed himself.
But the sad reality is that eventhough God has revealed himself,
fallen man rejects thatrevelation.
(04:17):
Because although they knew God,the Bible says, they did not
glorify him as God, nor werethey thankful.
And so in verse 22, we began tosee man's foolish thinking.
We began to see man'srationalization.
In rejecting God's clearrevelation of himself through
(04:37):
creation, people have failed tohonor and glorify God.
People have failed to give himthanks, and they became futile
in their philosophicalspeculations, and they became
foolish and darkened in theirhearts.
And trying to justifythemselves, because that's what
we do.
I mean, let's be honest, if weadmit that there is a God in
(04:58):
heaven, that there is anAlmighty God who possibly would
give a moral law into thisuniverse in which He is created,
if that is indeed the case, thenthat means I'm accountable.
And that's the last thing wewant.
We don't want to be accountable.
And so, trying to justifyourselves, we rationalize our
sin, just as fallen man stilldoes today, and professing to be
(05:22):
wise about God, professing to bewise about the universe,
professing to be wise aboutourselves, we still became
greater fools.
Centuries earlier in God's Word,in Psalm 14, verse 1, and in
Psalm 15, or excuse me, 53,verse 1, King David declared
(05:42):
that people who deny God and histruth are fools.
And it is this very foolishnessthat deludes them into thinking
that they are wise.
The spiritually unregenerate,natural person cannot think
perfectly about anything.
(06:04):
But a person's thinking isperverted most sincerely in the
spiritual and the divine realm,because that is where our sinful
rebellion is centered.
I mean, these things, thespiritual realm and the divine
realm, these things are alsobeyond our human perception.
And since we reject revelation,since fallen man rejects
(06:27):
revelation, he has no hope ofcoming to truth in himself.
And his foolish speculationstherefore go further astray,
they go furtherest astray, even,when he philosophizes about his
origin, when he philosophizesabout his purpose and his
destiny and the origin and themeaning of the universe in which
(06:50):
he or she lives.
The mind that is devoid of God'struth has no way to discriminate
between truth and falsehood.
The mind devoid of God's truthhas no way to discriminate
between right and wrong.
No way to discriminate betweenthe significant and the trivial.
No way to discriminate betweenthe truly beautiful and the
(07:10):
monstrous.
No way to discriminate betweenthe transient and the eternal.
Infect the church.
(07:31):
Because, for example, gifted andarticulate unbelievers have so
long and so loudly toutedevolution as scientific fact
rather than philosophical theorythat many Christians have been
intimidated into accommodatingtheir theology accordingly.
(07:53):
In the name of theisticevolution or progressive
creationism, they not onlycompromise scientific integrity,
but they also, and I must say,infinitely more disastrously,
compromise God's revelation.
If you're of the mindset thatthe first 11 chapters of the
(08:13):
book of Genesis are not history,then you don't even have any
ground to stand on as it relatesto the gospel.
If that's not true, how do weknow the gospel's true?
They accept the unfoundedfoolishness of spiritually
unregenerate men above theflawless truth of God's word.
(08:37):
And even in a similar approach,many Christians try to adapt
God's revelation to men'sspeculations in the areas of the
mind and the soul.
And unfortunately, intimidatedby the ever-changing and
truthfully mutually conflictingtheories of sociology and
anthropology and evenpsychology, many of us foolishly
(09:00):
modify and even exchange thetruths of God's revelation about
man in favor of man's absurdconjectures about himself.
If you hang around me any lengthof time at all, you will know
that I think Sigmund Freud was anut.
He was a kook.
(09:23):
The late Dr.
Martin Lloyd Jones perceptivelywrote, the whole drift toward
modernism that has blighted theChurch of God and nearly
destroyed its living gospel maybe traced to an hour when man
began to turn from revelation tophilosophy.
And thinking they are wise, theyhave become fools because their
(09:44):
own speculations can't replacethe revelation they reject.
It's amazing to me.
It's very sad, too, thatinstitution after institution,
in this great country,institution after institution
that once firmly stood on God'sword have progressively
accommodated itself to theintellectual foolishness of the
(10:06):
world system.
In the name of man's wisdom,they come to reflect the
foolishness and inevitably thegodlessness of the world system
of Satan.
And because he knew the ApostlePaul, as he's writing in 1
Corinthians 1, verse 18 and 20,and chapter 25, verse 2, and
(10:29):
chapter 2, verse 2 as well,because he knew that the Bible
says that the preaching of thecross is to them that are
perishing foolishness.
If you're in here this morningand you say the preaching of the
cross, the gospel, that's just afairy tale.
That's foolishness.
(10:50):
I don't even believe ahistorical Jesus lived, and if
he did live, he's a madman.
The Bible says that thepreaching of the cross to those
who are perishing isfoolishness.
I don't expect you to get it.
Unless God opens your mind.
Unless the Holy Spirit of Godbegins to deal with you and
(11:11):
convict you of your sin and yoursituation.
It's natural for you to out ofhand reject the gospel.
As the guide co-commercial says,it's what you do.
It's just what you do.
But the Bible also says that Godhas made foolish the wisdom of
the world.
And he says that the foolishnessof God is wiser than men.
(11:35):
And because of those truths, theapostle Paul declares that he
determined to know nothing amongthose to whom he preached except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Because it's the gospel that'sthe power of God unto salvation.
I can show you all the facts, Ican show you all the evidence.
You know what?
Most of the time I've I'vedetermined that really people
(11:55):
who reject God's word, rejectthe gospel, reject the truth of
salvation, they do not do sohonestly because of intellectual
objections.
Because most of the time I'llask folks, well, have you read
the Bible all the way through?
No.
And they have all thesepredisposed opinions about the
Bible.
Let's say, well, there'scontradictions in the Bible.
(12:16):
I want to hand my Bible to themand say, okay, show me one.
They don't, they can't.
Because they don't even know it.
They've not read it.
They've not taken the time todetermine its accuracy, its
historic reliability, how itstacks up.
They just out of hand completelyreject God's word, and it's not
on an intellectual basis, it'son emotional and volitional
(12:40):
basis.
They don't want to know God'sword.
They reject the truth of God'sword.
Because ultimately they hate theidea of a holy God who will hold
them accountable for theirrejection of Him.
And your only hope's the gospel.
Your only hope is the fact thatGod loves sinners.
(13:01):
Even though you reject Him, eventhough you know Him and do not
hold Him as God and do notglorify His name and are not
thankful to Him, He yet extendsHis offer to you in great love.
And He says in the book ofRevelation, whoever is thirsty,
let him come and drink of thewater of life freely.
Jesus said, All of you who areweary and heavy laden, come to
(13:21):
me.
Jesus said, If any man comes tome, I will in no wise cast him
out or turn him away.
This isn't in my notes.
If you were here in the firstservice, you know that.
It could very well be that theSpirit of God is very much at
work in someone's heart and mindthis morning.
(13:44):
I don't know.
It could be that you've come inhere set against the things of
God, and maybe you're herebecause somebody asked you to be
here.
You really didn't want to behere, but you're just being
polite.
SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
You're listening to Foundations of Truth, the
biblical teaching ministry ofDr.
Timothy Mann.
Thank you so much for yourprayers and your continued
financial support to help keepspreading biblical truth around
the world through our podcasts,our radio programs, and other
biblical resources.
You can give a financial gift atfoundationsoftruth.net.
Foundationsoftruth.net.
(14:16):
Now let's return to today'smessage from Romans chapter 1.
Here's Dr.
Timothy Mann.
SPEAKER_01 (14:21):
The greatest fool in all the world is the person who
exchanges God's wisdom of truthand light for man's wisdom of
deceit and darkness.
I want to ask you as a believer,even this morning, even as a
believer and a follower of JesusChrist, are you adopting the
world's so-called wisdom to liveyour life by?
Or are you clinging to the truthof God and his word?
(14:45):
Which is it?
The reason God's wrath is uponus is because he's revealed
himself, we've rejected him, andwe rationalize our foolish
thinking.
Profess to be wise, but yet sofoolish.
(15:06):
The Bible says in verse 23, andchange the glory of the
incorruptible God into an imagemade like corruptible man, and
birds and four-footed animalsand creeping things.
This is the fourth reason.
The fourth reason why everyperson is born under God's wrath
and condemnation is man-madereligion.
Our false worship, our falseworship, which is reflected in
(15:30):
the countless systems that wehave devised to replace the
truth and the worship of God.
Now the Bible's clear aboutthis.
The Bible is clear that althoughfallen sinners are not naturally
godly, boy, we sure are verynaturally religious.
(15:53):
We are.
We're naturally naturallyreligious.
We want to worship something, wewant to serve something.
As the great theologian BobDylan once said, everybody's
going to serve somebody.
It's the truth.
Approximately, I was doing myresearch on this sermon this
week and I've uh looked up somestats.
(16:15):
Approximately 5.8 billion peoplein the world have an
identifiable religiousaffiliation of some sort.
And many more are said to havesome form of unidentified
religion.
It's amazing.
Hindus have some 330 milliongods, which amounts to about
eight gods per family based ontheir population today.
(16:39):
They also revere cows.
I revere cows too, but in adifferent way.
They revere cows and countlessother animals that they consider
to be sacred.
It's amazing in my research.
I have to share this with you.
I'm not going to share as muchof facts as I did in the early
(17:00):
service, but uh as in mydiscovery this week, in my
research, I found out that thereis a two-inch-long discolored
tooth claimed to belong toBuddha and to have been
retrieved from his burial place.
That tooth is venerated,worshipped by millions of
Buddhists.
(17:20):
A tooth.
And that tooth, listen, checkthis out.
Can you believe this?
The tooth is set in a goldenlotus bloom surrounded with
rubies and enshrined in thelisten, wait for it.
Enshrin in the temple of thetooth.
(17:42):
I couldn't make this stuff up ifI tried.
In the temple of the tooth inSri Lanka.
A tooth.
Interestingly enough, though,the beliefs and the practices of
ritualistic Christianity differlittle from such pagan
(18:07):
superstitions.
Many humanistic sociologists andphilosophers and theologians
maintain that religion is a markof man's upward climb from
primitive chaos and ignorance,ascending through animism to
polydemonism to polytheism, andfinally to monotheism.
But the clear testimony ofScripture is that human religion
(18:32):
of any sort and of every sort,whether it's simple or whether
it's highly sophisticated, isactually a downward movement
away from God, a downwardmovement away from truth, and a
downward movement away fromrighteousness.
Contrary to much thinking, men'sreligions do not reflect their
highest endeavors, but insteadtheir lowest depravity.
(18:56):
That truth is attested even bysecular history.
Let me share a few thoughts withyou about that reality.
Herodotus, the famous Greekhistorian of the 5th century BC,
said that the earliest paganshad no pagan temples or idols.
The first century Roman scholarVero reported that the Romans
(19:16):
had no animal or human images ofa god for 170 years after the
founding of Rome.
Lucian, the second century A.D.
Greek writer, made similarstatements concerning early
Greece and even Egypt.
The fourth century Christianhistorian Eusbyus declared that
the quote, oldest peoples had noidols.
(19:38):
It's amazing all of the historythat we can see that as time has
gone on, it's devolved actuallymore and more and more into the
point where in spiritualblindness and intellectual
darkness and moral depravity,men are by nature inclined to
(19:58):
reject the holy creator for theunholy creature.
Because something even in ourfallenness demands a God, but
one they like better than thetrue God, they devise deities of
their own making.
(20:23):
You shall not make for yourselfan idol or any likeness of what
is in heaven above or on theearth beneath or in the water
above.
You shall not worship them orserve them.
Yet the irony and the sadreality of that, at the very
same time that those and othercommandments and ordinances were
being given to Moses, thechildren of Israel were down
below, making a golden calf toworship.
That's what was taking place.
(20:45):
I thought about this week, andthis may be a poor illustration,
a poor way to think about this,but in my view, man's rejection
of God and the embracing ofidols, whether it's ourself or
something else, can be comparedto a son who murdered his father
and then made a dummy figurethat he introduces to the world
as his father.
(21:05):
That's what it's like.
And yet, what sinful mankind hasalways done and continues to do
with God is actually infinitelymore wicked and senseless than
that.
Have you ever noticed that thefirst creature that man
substitutes for God is himself?
Himself.
(21:38):
Voltaire, although he doubtedlymade this alleged statement in
sarcasm, Voltaire was correctwhen he said this God made man
in his own image, and manreturned the favor.
Listen, every form of idolatryis a form of self worship.
(21:58):
Just as every Every form ofidolatry is a form of demon or
Satan worship.
Whether your idols are fashionedout of your own depraved
thinking or are inspired bySatan himself, every false God
appeals to our fallen nature andentices us to glorify and
indulge ourself.
That's what it does.
(22:20):
In one way or another, allidolatry is worship of self and
its service of Satan.
It's easy for us in so many waysto laugh at and kind of poke fun
at what it seems to be soridiculous.
Statues and idols.
A.W.
Tozer wisely observed thatidolatry begins in the mind.
(22:45):
When we pervert or exchange theidea of God for something other
than what he really is.
We think this morning it wouldbe ludicrous for us to make
images of birds and four-footedanimals and creeping things,
even though ancient cultureshave done that, and some even
not ancient, currently aroundthe world today.
Many years ago, J.
H.
(23:05):
Clinch wrote the provocative andpowerful lines, and still from
him we turn away and fill ourhearts with worthless things.
The fires of greed melt the clayand forth the idle springs.
Ambition's flame and passion'sheat, by wondrous alchemy,
transmute earth dross to raisesome gilded brute to fill
(23:29):
Jehovah's seat.
When a person rejects God'srevelation, whatever the form of
that revelation might be, whathappens is you regress through
rationalization, ultimately tofalse worship, false religion,
and ultimately to reprobation,which we're going to look at
next week.
(23:50):
Verse 24 through 32.
I challenge you, read thatbefore next week.
False worship begins when peoplereject what they know about God.
And instead of looking to Him ascreator and sustainer of life,
they see themselves as thecenter of the universe.
(24:10):
And then they soon invent godsthat are convenient projections
of your own selfish plans anddecrees.
Oh, those gods may be woodenfigures, or they may be the
things that we desire, such ascomfort.
Comfort, money, power.
(24:35):
They may even bemisrepresentations of God
Himself.
A result of making God in ourown image instead of the
reverse.
Anytime you think thoughts aboutGod that are not in line with
the truth of God's word, that isidolatry.
And that is false worship.
(24:56):
But the common denominator isthis idlers worship the things
God made rather than GodHimself.
How's your thinking?
How's your worship?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Thank you for joining us today for Foundations
of Truth, the biblical teachingministry of Dr.
Timothy Mann.
If you'd like to hear thismessage again or get more
biblical resources or give afinancial gift, you can do so
online.
Foundationsoftruth.net.
That's foundationsoftruth.net.
Foundations of Truth is madepossible in part by the generous
(25:29):
support of AMN Plumbing, proudlyserving Taytona Beach, Ormond
Beach, Port Orange, and NewSmyrna Beach communities.
Also Cat Care Clinic of OrmondBeach, providing compassionate,
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equipping men and women throughbiblical and theological
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We're grateful for theirpartnership in making this
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